


Rocs and Famines and Pirates, oh my!

by Firefrost76



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dragons, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Go check them out on tumblr, Inspired by teenytinyhatkid’s dragonrider au, Malnutrition, Pirates, i don’t know how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-07-31 21:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20122243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firefrost76/pseuds/Firefrost76
Summary: The village of Somnium is struggling in the clutches of famine, and Snatcher knows that it’s only a matter of time before his people starve. As such, he has no choice but to hunt in the forbidden part of the island. But little did he know, this choice was going to set off a chain of events he never could have foreseen.This was supposed to be a one-shot, but then my characters ran off, had an adventure, and are now making me document it. This is also my first ever post to any site, so, while constructive criticism is welcome, please be nice.





	1. Predators And Prey

**Author's Note:**

> The original inspiration for this story was just someone offering an opportunity for me to put Snatcher through some angst (why do I do this to my favorite characters, the poor man’s been through enough) but then my brain evolved it into something more. So, here we are. Enjoy!

‘This was a terrible idea,’ Snatcher thought as he ducked under the talons of the mother roc, one of whose eggs was clutched in his arms. He increased his speed, sprinting towards where the dragons were waiting. After the most recent pirate raid, he, CC, and Conductor had flown to the cliffs on the other side of the island in a last-ditch attempt to find anything to eat. The famine had hit them hard, and times were desperate enough that they had disregarded the old taboo about this place and sent a hunting party. Ahead of him, CC and Conductor reached their dragons, stashed the eggs they were carrying in their saddlebags, then scrambled onto their dragons’ backs.  
“Come on, lad!” Conductor shouted to him. His own dragon, Penumbra, growled and shifted slightly, resisting the impulse to rush to his rider’s aid. Snatcher wanted to run directly to them and take off immediately, but he knew if he did that, the massive bird closing in on him would slash them out of the sky before they made it twenty feet. As such, he darted sharply to the left and headed towards a thick cluster of trees situated near the edge of the cliff.

“Take off!” he shouted to his party. “Loop around to the base of the cliff beneath the trees and be ready to escape!” Ignoring CC’s cries of alarm and Conductor’s bellows of confusion, he raced towards the copse, the mother roc hot on his heels. Just before she could close her talons around his shoulders, he dove into the thicket, curling his body around the egg to prevent it from breaking. As he got to his feet, he let a faint smile form on his face. As he suspected, the foliage was too thick for his pursuer to follow him, and he could hear her screeching as she tried to find a way in.  
‘Well, I guess there’s one good thing resulting from this famine,’ Snatcher thought. Even with his scrawny frame, he had a hard time slipping between the trunks. There was no way a creature as large as the roc could get through, and the fact that she seemed to be focusing singularly on him led him to believe that Conductor and CC had followed his orders. Refusing to waste any more time, Snatcher tucked the egg between the roots of a tree, picked up a rock that was roughly the same size and shape of the egg, and ran out of the copse, emerging directly in front of the mother bird. “Hey, you overgrown chicken!” he called, lifting the rock in the air. “Look at this!” With that, he sprinted to the edge of the cliff and hurled the rock over the edge.

With a cry, the mother roc dove after it, and Snatcher darted back through the trees, grabbing the real egg as he did so, and pushed his way out the side closest to the cliff. Much to his relief, he saw his party waiting on the beach roughly a thousand feet below.  
“Penumbra, to me!” he called, then jumped into the open air. Penumbra spread his broad black wings and flew up to catch him, but before they could meet, they heard an earsplitting screech. The mother roc came shooting around the corner of the cliff and lunged straight at Snatcher. Before any of them could react, her talons sank into his chest, then slashed downwards, leaving three deep, ragged gashes across his torso. Snatcher let out an agonized scream. His chest felt as though it had been soaked in lava, white-hot pain whipping along his nerves like lightning. Warm blood poured out of the wounds, saturating his shirt in a matter of seconds and leaving disjointed trails of crimson droplets in the air behind him. The egg slipped from his slackened grip and plummeted towards the earth. The roc darted towards it, seized it in her talons, then soared away, presumably heading back to her nest. Snatcher landed heavily on Penumbra’s back, and would have slid off had the dragon not extended his wings to catch him. He groaned softly, but his consciousness was fading fast, and the last thing he heard was CC screaming his name.

As soon as Penumbra landed, CC ran over and gently lifted Snatcher off his back and laid him on the beach. She gasped in horror when she saw the full extent of the damage. The cuts had to be at least an inch deep and were gushing blood. His skin was even paler than normal and she could see a hint of white bone in one of the wounds. Behind her, Conductor was shouting obscenities after the roc, his tone soaked with anger and fear. CC pulled several rolls of bandages from her bag, then turned to Conductor.  
“Lift him up a little bit,” she ordered, pushing down her panic. Snatcher needed her to keep her head straight if he was going to survive. “I need to wrap the bandages around him.” The gruff man, startled by her ironlike tone, hurried to obey, kneeling beside her and slipping his hands under the thinner man’s back. He lifted his torso a few inches off the sandy ground. She carefully bound the strips of clean white fabric over his wounds, passing the roll from one hand to the other behind his back. As she worked, her dragon, Honeybun nuzzled her way under Snatcher’s legs and crouched there, keeping his feet elevated in an attempt to increase the circulation to his heart. Finishing, she secured the end of the bandage and settled back on her heels, her hands and coat smeared with his blood, which was beginning to dry.

CC knew that her slapdash patch-up wouldn’t be enough. Snatcher’s wounds definitely required stitches, but she didn’t have the materials to repair the deeper damage with her, and the last thing he needed was internal bleeding. Looking at him, her heart clenched. Even unconscious, his face was twisted in a grimace of pain, his breath was coming in short, sharp pants, and he was beginning to shiver.  
“We need to get him back to the village,” she instructed, getting to her feet. “I don’t have the supplies here.” Conductor nodded and picked up their unofficial leader. Once CC was situated on Honeybun’s back, he passed Snatcher to her, because her dragon’s four wings would be better suited to carrying the weight of an extra person. However, as she maneuvered him into a secure position so that he wouldn’t slip off while flying, she didn’t think weight would be a problem. She hadn’t missed the outline of his ribs against his skin while she was treating his injures, and now that she was holding him, she couldn’t ignore how light he felt.

Making a mental note to talk to Snatcher about his eating habits once he recovered -because he would recover, he had to- she led the hunting party into the air, heading back towards the relative safety of their village.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like the first chapter? I have the second one written, but it needs some heavy editing and I don’t want to post it if people dislike the story. Leave feedback in the comments.


	2. Friend Or Foe?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I want to apologize for how long this took to update. First, I was afraid that it wasn’t good enough, then I was busy preparing for school, and then my internet died, and now I’m finally posting the next chapter. Thank you for your patience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter there is a character named Crowley introduced. He is teenytinyhatkid’s OC and I encourage you to go check them out on tumblr; they are seriously amazing.

The hunting party was several hours late, and Moonjumper was beginning to panic. Snatcher never stayed out later than his stated return time without sending a message via Brûlée about the change, and if that man was anything, he was reliable. With this thought in mind, Moonjumper directed Jericho towards another neck of the forest, their eyes scanning urgently for any sign of the vanished trio or their dragons. Suddenly, he felt a slight tug on his coat. Snapping out of his mind-link trance and returning to his own body, he looked down to see Hat Kid staring up at him with worried eyes.  
“Have you found Daddy yet?” she asked in a small voice.

Moonjumper smiled uncomfortably.  
“I’m following his trail as we speak,” he lied, praying that she would believe him. To his relief, she smiled warmly at him, hugged him around the waist, and ran off. Glancing around, he noticed a harried-looking Crowley and waved him over. “Please keep her distracted,” he almost begged. “I don’t think I can lie to her forever.” The black-haired man gave him a weary nod and padded over to Hat Kid, a cheery smile plastered on his face. Moonjumper admired his tenacity; the famine still had a tight grip on the village, shown clearly in the hollow faces and pale skin of its people, but Crowley still managed to put on a brave face for the children he took care of, and as a result they believed that things would get better soon. You wouldn’t have guessed it with his gentle personality and apologetic manner, but he had an iron will, probably inherited from his grand-uncle.

A faint but insistent tugging in his mind pulled Moonjumper out of his thoughts, and he reestablished his link with Jericho. He blinked, momentarily disoriented by the sensation of seeing through his dragon’s eyes, but quickly adjusted. When they looked around, the first thing he noticed was the fact that they were trapped in a net hanging roughly a dozen feet above the forest floor. It was woven out of vines, but very sturdy, as it held up against all of Jericho’s attempts to break free.  
‘How did this happen?’ he asked anxiously. Before Jericho could answer, there was a rustling in the branches above them. A muscular woman dressed in roughly sewn furs dropped onto a branch alongside the net and peered suspiciously at them. Her face was hidden by a mask that was shockingly similar to Snatcher’s combat mask, right down to the glowing eyes. The only differences were the fact that her mask seemed to be modeled after a fox as opposed to Snatcher’s stag-themed mask, and her eyes glowed green instead of yellow. In a blur of motion, the mystery woman’s arm shot out and seized hold of Jericho’s jaw, forcing them to look into her eyes.

“I know you’re there, rider,” she said in an almost accusing tone. “Leave. I wish to speak to the dragon.” Moonjumper was so surprised he felt the mind-link splinter for a moment before Jericho pulled him back in.  
‘What?’ was all he could manage to say to his dragon, but the drake was just as confused as he was. The woman’s eyes narrowed impatiently and her grip tightened slightly, making Jericho squirm.  
“Leave,” she repeated. “I will not harm your dragon. I only want to ask him why he was hunting in my forest.” Sensing Moonjumper’s confusion, Jericho elaborated.  
‘While I was searching for our friends, I saw a deer that would have fed a good chunk of the village if you rationed it, so I dove for it, but then this net caught me, and you know what happened after that.’ Moonjumper projected a feeling of understanding through their link.

‘I think you should let me talk to her,’ Jericho said, sending a wave of reassurance down their bond to quell Moonjumper’s fears. ‘I’m not sure why, but I trust that she’ll keep her word. And if all else fails, I can always hypnotize her.’  
‘That’s true,’ Moonjumper agreed, but then he realized something. ‘Wait, what do you mean ‘talk to her?’ She can’t understand you, can she?’  
‘No, but her dragon can translate for me,’ Jericho said. ‘She’s right below us.’ They looked down to see a dragon with stunted wings pacing in circles on their long hind legs, green scales shimmering in the dappled forest light.  
‘If you’re sure,’ Moonjumper said hesitantly. He felt another pulse or reassurance, and pulled out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter might be a little slower paced than my usual writing style, but I’m trying to get the worldbuilding out of the way early because I’m not very good at it. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Thanks for reading! :)


	3. This Is Bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunting party returns to Somnium, and Moon is even more worried than he was when they were MIA.

As he returned to his body, Moonjumper was greeted with the sound of Hat Kid shouting.  
“Daddy’s home!” she cried, running towards the landing site. Looking up, Moonjumper saw the steadily growing forms of the three dragons. He followed Hat Kid, eager to ask the group why they had taken so long to return. Penumbra and Alastair landed on the flat, grassy hilltop and Conductor slid off his dragon’s back. However, Honeybun flew straight past and swooped into CC’s house through her window. Moonjumper approached Conductor, unease twisting in his stomach. That window led to the village infirmary, and that combined with the sight of Penumbra’s empty saddle did not bode well. That feeling erupted into full blown fear when he noticed the old man’s expression, a mixture of anger and poorly concealed fear, and saw the red stains on his hands and coat, and on Penumbra’s back.  
“Conductor, what happened?!” he shouted, sprinting the rest of the distance between them and grabbing him by the collar. “Where’s Snatcher, and why are you covered in blood?!” The shorter man took hold of Moonjumper’s wrists and pulled his hands off of him.

“Calm down, laddie,” he said, his attempt at a level voice shaking. “One question at a time.” Moonjumper opened his mouth to protest, but he was silenced by the sound of small footsteps approaching through the grass. The two men turned to see Hat Kid emerge from the foliage. Moon quickly stepped in front of her, blocking the sight of the bloodstained Penumbra and Conductor.  
“Sweetheart, you should really have stayed with Crowley,” he said, scooping her up and holding her to his chest so she couldn’t look around him. “I’m sure he’s worried that you just ran off like this.” He set off down the hill before she could argue, Conductor following at a responsible distance. Once he found Crowley, Moonjumper handed the squirming girl to him and definitely did not try to sprint towards CC’s house. Nope, no panicked running off for him. He was perfectly calm, and Conductor definitely didn’t have to block him.

“Moon, ye can’t just go charging into the infirmary,” he told him. “CC needs to focus, and she can’t do that if yer blundering around like Alastair while she’s working.” Moonjumper tried to dart past the hunter, but he moved to block his path again. He growled, clenching his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms.  
“Conductor,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “Get out of my way or so help me-“  
“I’ll take you up there,” the old hunter said hurriedly. “Just promise to stay out of CC’s way and she should let you stay.”  
“Fine,” Moon snapped. “But I want to know exactly what happened to my cousin.”  
“I’ll fill you in on the way,” Conductor promised as they set off for CC’s home.

The infirmary was CC’s haven. Even though people only came here because they were suffering in some way, it always felt safe to her. It was small but cozy, with enough space for four beds, two on both sides of the room, a few chairs for visitors, and a little workspace for her where she stored all of her supplies and medicines. The scents of the herbs was always calming; even when she was attempting to pull someone back from death’s doorstep, the spicy-sweet tang of healing plants kept her head level. It was a perk she was very grateful for as Honeybun slid Snatcher onto one of the beds.

He hadn’t stirred on the journey back to Somnium beyond a few semi-lucid moments, and even then he had merely stared at her, his eyes glistening with tears of pain that he was too proud to shed. She dismissed those memories and busied herself with gathering the supplies necessary to fix him up. She grabbed a needle, some thread, multiple fresh bandages, and a few bundles of herbs, then hurried to his side. He was still unconscious, but she crushed some lavender blossoms and waved them under his nose, sending him into a deeper slumber. She unwrapped her hastily applied bandages, which were already stained red, then looked at the damage. The injuries were bone deep, but thankfully they were fairly clean. Snatcher’s skin had split neatly, with very few ragged edges that would have made sewing the wounds closed difficult. Sending a silent prayer of thanks to any deity who happened to be listening, she threaded her needle and went to work.

Conductor eased open the door to CC’s house, partly as to not disturb her, and partly to keep Moonjumper from doing something rash. The lad liked to think that he was more reasonable than his headstrong cousin, but when Snatcher was in danger, the trader would act without thinking. Thankfully, Moonjumper stuck to his word and remained silent as he climbed the stairs, although his customary gait was a tad speedier than usual. As the two of them reached the second floor, they saw that the door to the infirmary was blocked by Honeybun. The feline dragon gave a rumbling purr when she saw Moon, but it changed to a growl at the sight of Conductor.  
“Easy, girl,” Moonjumper said, stroking her head. “He’s not here to cause trouble. He was just telling me what happened to Snatcher.” Honeybun nuzzled against Moon’s hand happily, her animosity towards the old hunter forgotten for the moment. “May we go in to see him?” Moonjumper asked her. She shook her head, giving him a sympathetic look.  
“I guess CC’s still working on him,” Conductor said, edging a little closer to Honeybun in order to stand beside Moonjumper. “Maybe we should leave and come back later.”  
“No.” Moon’s voice was rock solid. “I’m not going anywhere until I see my cousin.” Conductor heaved a long-suffering sigh.  
“Alright. Suit yourself, lad.” He began to walk back towards the stairs. Moonjumper sat on the floor, leaning back against Honeybun as he locked his eyes on the infirmary door. Conductor paused, his foot hovering over the first step. He looked over his shoulder at Moon, then at the stairs, then back at Moon. “Ah, peck it.” He trudged back over and flopped down beside him. In response to the questioning glance the younger man gave him, he merely grumbled, “I’m not letting you wait alone. No one should have to worry if their family member might not live all by themselves.”  
“Thank you,” Moonjumper said quietly.


End file.
